"Soon shall I that spearhead seize,
And the bold sea-rover slay,
Him whose blows on headpiece ring,
Heaper up of piles of dead.
Then on Endil's courser (4) bounding,
O'er the sea-depths I will ride,
While the wretch who spells abuseth,
Life shall lose in Sigar's storm." (5)
"Kolskegg has a short sword; that is also the best of weapons.
Force, too, they have -- a third more than ye. They have also
much goods, and have stowed them away on land, and I know clearly
where they are. But they have sent a spy-ship off the ness, and
they know all about you. Now they are getting themselves ready
as fast as they can; and as soon as they are `boun,' they mean
to run out against you. Now you have either to row away at once,
or to busk yourselves as quickly as ye can; but if ye win the day
then I will lead you to all their store of goods."
Gunnar gave him a golden finger-ring, and went afterwards to his
men and told them that war-ships lay on the other side of the
ness, "and they know all about us; so let us take to our arms and
busk us well, for now there is gain to be got."
Then they busked them; and just when they were `boun' they see
ships coming up to them. And now a fight sprung up between them,
and they fought long, and many men fell. Gunnar slew many a man.
Hallgrim and his men leapt on board Gunnar's ship. Gunnar turns
to meet him, and Hallgrim thrust at him with his bill. There was
a boom athwart the ship, and Gunnar leapt nimbly back over it.
Gunnar's shield was just before the boom, and Hallgrim thrust his
bill into it, and through it, and so on into the boom. Gunnar
cut at Hallgrim's arm hard, and lamed the forearm, but the sword
would not bite. Then down fell the bill, and Gunnar seized the
bill, and thrust Hallgrim through, and then sang a song --
"Slain is he who spoiled the people,
Lashing them with flashing steel;
Heard have I how Hallgrim's magic
Helm-rod forged in foreign land;
All men know, of heart-strings doughty,
How this bill hath come to me,
Deft in fight, the wolf's dear feeder,
Death alone us two shall part."
And that vow Gunnar kept, in that he bore the bill while he
lived. Those namesakes the two Kolskeggs fought together, and
it was a near thing which would get the better of it. Then
Gunnar came up, and gave the other Kolskegg his death-blow.
After that the sea-rovers begged for mercy. Gunnar let them have
that choice, and he let them also count the slain, and take the
goods which the dead men owned, but he gave the others whom he
spared their arms and their clothing, and bade them be off to the
lands that fostered them. So they went off, and Gunnar took all
the goods that were left behind.
Tofi came to Gunner after the battle, and offered to lead him to
that store of goods which the sea-rovers had stowed away, and
said that it was both better and larger than that which they had
already got.
Gunnar said he was willing to go, and so he went ashore, and Tofi
before him, to a wood, and Gunnar behind him. They came to a
place where a great heap of wood was piled together. Tofi says
the goods were under there, then they tossed off the wood, and
found under it both gold and silver, clothes, and good weapons.
They bore those goods to the ships, and Gunnar asks Tofi in what
way he wished him to repay him.
Tofi answered, "I am a Dansk man by race, and I wish thou wouldst
bring me to my kinsfolk."
Gunnar asks why he was there away east?
"I was taken by sea-rovers," says Tofi, "and they put me on land
here in Osel, and here I have been ever since."